It’s no secret that I like
NIM. I’ve written about NIM on several occasions, in Redbooks, technical
articles and on my blog. It’s a great tool for installing and maintaining AIX. Occasionally
though, it can throw you an unusual error or two when things go wrong. For the uninitiated
resolving these errors can be challenging.

Here’s a couple of NIM
related questions I received recently. Both are troubleshooting queries.

“I'm getting the following error when trying
to create a NIM lpp_source for AIX 6.1”:

Define a
Resource

Type or
select values in entry fields.

Press Enter
AFTER making all desired changes.

[Entry Fields]

* Resource
Name[6100-06_lpp]

* Resource
Typelpp_source

* Server of
Resource[master]+

* Location
of Resource[/export/eznim]/

NFS Client Security Method[]+

NFS Version Access[]+

Architecture of Resource[]+

Source of Install Images[/dev/cd0]+/

Names of Option Packages[]

Show Progress[yes]+

Comments[]

...

Preparing to
copy install images (this will take several minutes)...

0042-001
nim: processing error encountered on "master":

0042-081 m_mk_lpp_source: a resource already
exists on "master" at

location
"/export/eznim/bid_ow"; due to NFS export restrictions, the

new location "/export/eznim"
may not be used

...

I could see
what could be causing the issue but I first asked to see the contents of the /etc/exports file. Just to make sure
that /export/eznim was not
explicitly exported. It wasn’t.

# grep eznim
/etc/exports

/export/eznim/vios/mksysb_image
-ro,root=vio1,access=vio1

/export/eznim/bid_ow
-ro,root=nim1,access=nim1

I suggested
they re-try the operation again but this time specify the full path to the lpp_source directory, like so:

Define a Resource

Type or
select values in entry fields.

Press Enter
AFTER making all desired changes.

[Entry Fields]

* Resource
Name
[6100-06_lpp]

* Resource
Type
lpp_source

* Server of
Resource
[master]
+

* Location
of
Resource
[/export/eznim/6100-06_lpp]
/

NFS
Client Security
Method
[]
+

NFS
Version
Access
[]
+

Architecture of Resource
[]
+

Source of Install Images
[/dev/cd0]
+/

Names
of Option
Packages
[]

Show
Progress
[yes]
+

Comments
[]

This worked
fine. And the lpp_source was created successfully.

# lsnim
-l 6100-06_lpp

6100-06_lpp:

class = resources

type = lpp_source

locked = 26738726

Rstate = unavailable for use

prev_state =

location = /export/eznim/6100-06_lpp

alloc_count = 0

server = master

The second
issue related to down-level filesets after an AIX 6.1 migration with nimadm.There was also an issue with disk space that generated an error during
NIM operations.

“Hi Chris,

Thanks for replying
back to my post. I am a newbie to AIX/pSeries world.

I was following
your document on upgrading AIX 5.3 to 6.1 using nimadm, it seemed to have
worked partially for me, as I got to AIX 6100-00-00. The mksysb and the SPOT I
created were for AIX 6100-06-05.

Before I re-attempt
the upgrade, is there anything I need to be clean up on AIX 5.3 side that could
have perhaps caused issues with the upgrade.

Thanks”

I
recommended that the following command be run on the NIM client, to determine
which filesets were down-level after the migration.

#
oslevel -s

#
instfix -i | grep AIX

#
instfix -i | grep SP

If the output contained messages like "Not all filesets for
6100-06_AIX_ML were found", or something similar, then they should
run the following command against each line (there could be more than one).

#
instfix -icqk 6100-06_AIX_ML | grep ":-:"

This will tell you which filesets were not updated.

The output from ‘oslevel –s’and
‘instfix –i | grep AIX’ looked OK.

#
oslevel -s

6100-06-04-1112

#
instfix -i | grep AIX

All filesets for 6100-00_AIX_ML were found.

All filesets for 6100-01_AIX_ML were found.

All filesets for 6100-02_AIX_ML were found.

All filesets for 6100-03_AIX_ML were found.

All filesets for 6100-04_AIX_ML were found.

All filesets for 6100-05_AIX_ML were found.

All filesets for 6100-06_AIX_ML were found.

But the
output from ‘instfix –i| grep SP’ indicated an issue with 61-06-051115_SP.

#
instfix -i | grep SP

All filesets for 61-00-010748_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-00-020750_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-00-030808_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-00-040815_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-01-010823_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-00-050822_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-00-060834_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-01-020834_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-00-070846_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-01-030846_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-02-010847_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-02-020849_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-00-080909_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-01-040909_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-02-030909_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-03-010921_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-00-090920_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-01-050920_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-02-040920_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-00-100939_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-01-060939_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-02-050939_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-03-020939_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-04-010944_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-04-021007_SP were
found.

All
filesets for 61-04-031009_SP were found.

All filesets for 61-00-110943_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-01-081014_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-02-060943_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-03-030943_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-03-041014_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-04-041014_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-05-011016_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-01-091015_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-02-081015_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-03-051015_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-04-051015_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-01-070943_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-02-071014_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-02-091034_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-03-061034_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-04-061034_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-05-021034_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-06-011043_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-02-101036_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-03-071036_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-04-071036_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-05-031036_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-06-021044_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-06-031048_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-05-041048_SP were
found.

All
filesets for 61-04-081048_SP were found.

All filesets for 61-03-081048_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-03-091112_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-04-091112_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-05-051112_SP were
found.

All filesets for 61-06-041112_SP were
found.

Not all filesets for 61-06-051115_SP were found.

The culprit
was the csm.hc_utils fileset from
TL6 SP5. It was still at level 1.7.1.0 instead of the expected 1.7.1.1.

I recommended that the csm.hc_utils
1.7.1.1 fileset be added to the AIX 6.1 lpp_source.
The migration was attempted again and the client migrated to AIX 6.1 TLP6 SP5
successfully. I also suggested they
determine if this fileset was really used and/or needed (CSM is no longer
supported/available starting with AIX 7.1 anyway).

And just
when I thought all his problems were resolved, he replied with: “however upon trying to install these from
the NIM server, I get errors on NIM”.